Investigators with the National Weather Service will spend today working to establish the intensity of tornadoes that hit the southern U.S. Unconfirmed twisters in Alabama hit northwest of Tuscaloosa and southeast of the state capitol of Montgomery. One storm near Birmingham picked up a school bus and dropped it on a local high school. Violent weather in Georgia flipped a gas station onto its roof. Roads remain impassable due to downed trees and power lines. Storms in Missouri, Mississippi, and Arkansas are blamed for close to a dozen fatalities. The website Poweroutage.us says close to quarter million southern residents woke up in the dark today. The weather system also kicked up dust storms in Kansas and Texas that caused traffic pile ups that killed a dozen more. Forecasters were watching this system for close to a week before it hit due to the size and intensity. Alabama and Georgia were among the states to declare emergencies ahead of the storm’s arrival.
Violent tornadoes and high winds decimated homes, wiped out schools and toppled semitractor-trailers as a monster storm that killed at least 32 people ripped its way across the central and southern U.S. Missouri resident Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors found five bodies scattered in the debris Friday night outside what remained of his aunt's house in hard-hit Wayne County. Scattered twisters killed at least a dozen people in the state, authorities said.
"It was a very rough deal last night," Henderson said Saturday not far from the splintered home from which he said they rescued his aunt through a window of the only room left standing. "It's really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night."
Coroner Jim Akers of nearby Butler County described the "unrecognizable home" where one man was killed as "just a debris field."
"The floor was upside down," he said. "We were walking on walls."
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announced six people died in three counties and three more people were missing late Saturday as storms moved further east into Alabama, where damaged homes and impassable roads were reported. Officials confirmed three deaths in Arkansas, where Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp also declared an emergency in anticipation of the storm's shift eastward. Early Sunday morning, the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency used its social media accounts to repost a National Weather Service tornado watch for parts of southeast Georgia.
In response to the watch, which warns of isolated tornadoes and hail and gusts of 50 to 70 mph, Kemp posted a note saying his family was "praying for all those impacted by this storm system and those still in its path."
"We will continue to work closely with state and local officials to respond to damage and assess any needs following this weather event," Kemp wrote.
Dust storms spurred by the system's early high winds claimed almost a dozen lives on Friday. Eight people died in a Kansas highway pileup involving at least 50 vehicles, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle.
The extreme weather conditions were forecast to impact an area that is home to more than 100 million people, with winds threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and fanning the wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south. Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state and nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 266 square miles had burned, sharing that he lost a home of his own on a ranch northeast of Oklahoma City.
To the north, the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches were expected, with up to a foot possible. Winds were expected to cause whiteout conditions.
Still, experts said it's not unusual to see such weather extremes in March.
Significant tornadoes continued late Saturday, with the region at highest risk stretching from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said. Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiance, Caleb Barnes, watched from their front porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, as a massive twister struck an area about half a mile away near Paradise Ranch RV Park.
They drove over afterward to see if anyone needed help and recorded video of snapped trees, leveled buildings and overturned vehicles.
"The amount of damage was catastrophic," Dillon said. "It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over. Everything was destroyed."
Paradise Ranch said via Facebook that all staff and guests were safe and accounted for, but Dillon said the damage extended beyond the RV park itself.
"Homes and everything were destroyed all around it," she said. "Schools and buildings are just completely gone."
Tad Peters and his father, Richard Peters, had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, on Friday night when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists fleeing the interstate to park.
"Whoa, is this coming? Oh, it's here. It's here," Tad Peters can be heard saying on a video. "Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn ..."
His father then rolled up the window.
The two were headed to Indiana for a weightlifting competition but decided to return home to Norman, Oklahoma, about six hours away, where they then encountered wildfire.
